3 yrs til college - cost?what lump sum now is needed?

only about 3 years(gulp) til college for first offspring (quite a while longer til second darling goes). I am going to assume that child will attend college in either Dublin/Galway for 4 years and would need to pay for accommodation etc.. Any ideas on how to get a figure for the cost p.a. ? What sort of lump sum would be needed now to cover this. We'll be (hopefully) selling house and have money to pay off our own mortgage but will not pay it off completely so we can have nest egg for college.. Any idea how much would be needed - 20K, 30K etc ? any ideas where this could best be invested taking into account would be needed 2 or 3 years later..

dubinamerica said:

any ideas where this could best be invested taking into account would be needed 2 or 3 years later..

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You probably don't want to take too many risks with a lump sum over that sort of investment timeframe so you might be restricted to high rate deposit accounts (i.e. the best demand or term lump sum and regular saver accounts on offer - see the Financial Best Buys forum) or maybe a low charges unit linked fund investing in low risk assets (e.g. cash, bonds or maybe something slightly more adventurous) even if a 3 year timeframe might be cutting it fine with such an investment...

yes, that sounds good, I'd like to ensure that we have her college fees someway taken care of (though she'll be expected to work to contribute), before we tackle paying off our mortgage and so on. I don't want to be caught out in a few years. Any ideas on what it costs to put a child through college assuming they are living away from home?

The USI have the results of a cost of living survey from 2004 [broken link removed]. Add a bit extra for inflation and you'll have a rough idea of the costs.